I fear that one of the worst things religion did to people is to make them think that every hope of doing something amazing and making the world a better place is insane. People are afraid of great dreams, because they think it's religion. They think low of singularity-related stuff just because they pattern-match long life (and/or immortality) and superhuman intelligence with what religions promise and talk about. They shouldn't. Living longer, better, improving ourselves and extending our capabilities beyond what is currently possible is not faith-stuff; it is the dream of mankind at large, and we're building our technology to achieve that.
The best thing that religion did is show modern man the dangers of choosing faith over evidence. People don't call the singularity a religion because they want the world to be better or want to live forever or know more. Everyone wants that. They call it a religion because people believe this will happen in their lifetimes because they really want it to. They have faith and have shown no evidence. It's not about the belief in improvement, it's about the belief in prediction of a specific kind of improvement and a prediction of a timeline.
